DUTCHIES SAGA: ON THE LOOSE

Camping is good. I own this place right now, just me since Sunday AM. At least what I can see in my “loop”. There are a few others here on the other side.

Sunday was very rainy. Hard rain at times, periods of no rain. But it rained all day. There was lightening and thunder.

The cats were hiding the first day. But Dutchie was staring out the door and murmuring and God knows I know what that means. Let her out. It only gets worse. But I was ready. I had bought a couple cat harnesses. In the past the ones I bought were like six straps covering the chest and neck, pretty unescapable. The best I found recently looked like sports bras, with holes for the front legs.

I tested them on the cats. Fluff was a tight fit for that ONE SIZE FITS ALL, and Dutchie easily fit the same harness. Possibly too easily. I carried her out for a chance to look around. I had 50 feet of rope on her.

I put her down and it was DUTCHIE TIME. Magical, mysterious. She just wriggled out of that harness in about 5 seconds. Now she was back to panic-kitty mode, and she sprinted off in a random direction. She had no idea where she was, and only had a possible glimpse of what home looked like. But something kicked in, and she stopped and came back. I was talking to her and trying to keep her calm. But she has issues with us moving AGAIN, evidently, and just turned around and bolted for the nearby woods, about 150 feet away across a green grass field.

I knew it was a problem right away. OH, I knew she would be OK, I would get her back. She is a smart cat and survives. She spent a day in a hurricane in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, outside and hunkered down. Probably with a couple foxes. In that case I came back to the duplex hours later and eventually she came back when it was safe.

And now, a couple years later...here we go again.

SO, I followed her. She was in the woods before I could see where she entered. There was a distinct woods line. Cut grass versus dense woods. I figured she would stop in the first line of woodsiness... Therefore I did not go into the woods. I stood there and whistled and yelled her name. It was dense at the edge, but walkable further inside

No sign, and a new storm was moving in. It started raining hard and it was every man/cat for themself. I went back to LEGGS just as it was getting dark.

I knew the kitty game. The rain would make her find shelter and hunker down. Dutchie was a PRO at this. So I figured all would be OK. But I pulled up the weather radar, and it was not good. Solid rain for a few hours. Just as it was getting dark, I went back and looked. Light rain. Now I heard some far away cat cries. Hard to tell where from exactly. I stood and stared into the woods looking for movement. I walked for a ways

Then, like in a dream, I saw her jump through a clearing ahead of me. She was not responding to my yells (too pissed) and then I averted my eyes to walk over some logs. I looked up and I had lost sight. She was crying off and on, I knew where she was - roughly, but she was not coming to me. It was a game that I was not wanting to play. Again I went back to the RV. I kept whistling for her, and I knew she knew where I was. Eventually she would get tired of being wet in the woods. Sure enough, later I heard her crying nearby in the dark. I whistled again. Finally she appeared under the RV. She was soaking wet, and went right up the stairs and inside.

She slept very well after I dried her up. Next morning I thought she was broken in, she knew where her home was. She wanted out again, and it was finally sunny and not raining. When I open the door, a couple of stairs extend outward. When they came out, Dutchie panicked and bolted. This time she was not doing the bounding thing, she was sprinting. Right into the woods again. But this time I knew where she was, and so did she. Eventually she came back, and things have become a bit normal at this point.

I have hooked up the water now, the refrigerator at first was acting up, but it is fine now. The AC and heater work, although I really do not need them yet. It DOES get very cool here at night.

I hesitated extending out the awning as it has been pretty windy the last few days, but last night I finally got that done.

Most of my meals are cooked on the grill outside. Yesterday that fancy HINGED LID on the grill proved to be a problem. It is top heavy when the lid is opened, and the wind caught it and blew it off a picnic table I have here. Hot coals everywhere, but I just picked them up with a utensil and built the fire back. Put a couple burgers on, and left the grill on the ground for now. Soon, the wind knocked it all over again. The burgers remained on the grill even as it lay on its side. In a few minutes I was having lunch.

I bought the tow dolly Wednesday. I had them check my tires. The rear end has double tires on both sides. They found that the inside tire on the drivers side had blown out. There was a big hole in the side of it. Right now the spare is on, and I will return in a few weeks for a new tire and other possible work. The tow dolly worked great. Easy to put the car on and get it off.

Kentucky Derby this weekend, tomorrow. Today is The Oaks, a big race for people who want to see a race, but who may not want to fight the crowds Saturday.

Good to hear from you again Dave. I won't ask what animal parts are being ground up and applied as a 'home brew' miracle fix for the feet...

Though I can well imagine how those lenses got misted up. It is all too easy to forget to tighten the lid on that old food processor, yes? Not many ophthalmologists have to spend their days scrubbing chicken gizzards off eyeballs. Yours got lucky.

The reports regarding the Orthodox Church hooligan suggest he was NOT intoxicated, just really, really, really cross about not being able to hop on a flight out of there. So he stole a car from the airport (keys left inside, why wouldn't you?!)) and took off, driving so erratically that he brought attention to himself. When stopped he blurted that he had no licence and ran off, discarding his clothing as he went, before breaking into the church to do some damage to the 200 year old candelabra, and a church pew. He's from California, where he has previous convictions, and had arrived to work in one of the big fish processing plants in Dutch. He had never been in trubba in the state of Alaska. He had, however, only been in town for 2 weeks...

The words 'just can't get the staff around here' come to mind.

But it is also clear that the number of seats available to last minute travellers hasn't improved any around there either. Maybe he saw how much they were asking for a burger at the airport and flipped?

You always kept your shirt on though, right Joe?

The excitement in Dutch Harbor over the last few days was a big fire at a warehouse that burned for 13 hours straight, nothing left but a melted shell.

It wasn't Joes old place.

The banana room is safe.

I'm just back from collecting Betti from her big 2nd birthday FIRST service. It was a major service interval, but having checked her all over she passed all inspections with flying colours. She was awarded certificates and everything. She got a full valet and I treated her to some new wiper blades (eyelashes) so she looks as smart as the day she first came home.

I am so pleased I paid upfront for her maintenance package lasting for 6 years. It made me poor for a few months after finding that extra cash, but now I can grin like a Cheshire Cat whilst driving away from the workshop without paying a penny for all the routine stuff.

Well, I stopped grinning once I'd stopped to buy a tank of the unreasonably priced unleaded stuff....obviously....

Just how drunk was he? I've been laying low lately. Nothing serious, but my cataract replacement lenses got all steamed up on the inside and I couldn't read the computer display. Actually, the new format was some help because of the much larger font size. I figured out that the "Newest First" option on comment display would save me a lot of scrolling.

I went to an ophthalmologist Monday and got a laser scrubbing of my lenses and can see almost good as new now. I've also been playing doctor with my feet: diabetic ulcers due to cracked calluses. They're coming along pretty well too, besides, I have always been a secret surgeon. My podiatrist has complimented me on how well I do bandages.

Granddaughter, Miranda, is about to go in for her last round (6) of chemotherapy and will move on to radiation and perhaps surgery. About a week after each round of chemo, her white blood cell counts plummet and they have to give her special drugs and transfusion to get them back up so she can do the next round. Her main hospital, Childrens Hospital of Oakland, is now part of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Childrens' Hospital System; it's a good move for everyone. It gives CHO a direct pipeline into what is arguably the leading research medical school in the world. She is also being sent to Lucile Packard Childrens' Hospital at Stanford University. She could hardly be in a better location than the Bay Area.

We've had wonderful weather for the past few weeks. Just a few cool days and a few ever-so-slightly too warm ones. Many just perfect days. I like to sit on the front deck and read Nordic Noire mysteries and thank God that I don't live in Oslo!

I was checking out the Dutch Harbor news. A man had been trying unsuccessfully for several days to get off the island on standby. He was upset. He stole a Unisea vehicle, drove to the Russian Orthodox Church, broke in, damaged a 60-pound candle holder, and some other things. When police arrived, he bit one of them. He's in all kinds of trouble. Since the church is a historic landmark, the National Park Service can help with repairs. Nobody knows why he chose the church to vent his frustrations upon.

Arbie and Uk thanks so much for linking to the photos -- there are some good ones! And the google comparisons are priceless! wonder if those cats would like to have a box for the ride? Looks like a pretty nice set up -- esp. since the campground is not full!

Dutchie: She is such a sweetie. OSDianna, I think you have a point - will she ever adjust to constant moving. Getting used to riding in the RV is a feat in itself. It is a bit noisy in there and you know those cats like peace and quiet when trying to sleep. When we were returning from the "tow dolly" event, JoeA started driving and all of a sudden, Dutch came out of no where and lit onto the door screen and let out a yowl like I had never heard her make before. Joe immediately started talking to her and she understands KY English pretty well, because she soon quieted down, backed off the screen and all was quiet. This was my first ride in the RV and Joe was towing Big Red for the first time. I felt a little tense - wondering about his concentration. All went well. About 10 miles from Joe's new digs, we stopped at a grocery store; I waited in the RV while he shopped. JoeA brought little Dutchie to me and she was tickled to be safe in someone's arms. She was shaking like a leaf all over but with the loudest purring going on. She stayed in my lap while he shopped and until we got home. She just felt safe and secure there. Hopefully she will be used to her new RV home before he starts his trek west. but as YLee suggests, I think he has to really secure the harness before taking her out for a walk in new surroundings. Just thinkin' -- but Joe knows his cats.

One would hope the rain has prevented there being much of a fire hazard around happy Joes jumping hot rocks campsite...he's at it again....obviously.

He won't rest until he has branded every picnic table in the land.

He used to blame the wind for taking the grill lid off for a walk back in Dutch too....

Nothing a bit of strong tape won't fix. Or a large turkey might work. Have you tried that option yet?

I'm not sure the sports bra/ cat harness situation is going to improve without the aid of some strong adhesive tape and/ or breast enhancement surgery. The former is going to have painful fur wax complications and the latter is going to make her the talk of the town back in Unalaska. Maybe if she was wearing a few pairs of knickers to bulk her out around the middle?

Stick a cuppla pairs of socks down there for good measure.

I know you know that works.

(Though I'm clueless as to whether that ever lead to you being walked around a park on a leash. I have my suspicions, just no evidence that would be admissible in a court of law. Obviously I am free to cast aspersions here - I have an evening to trawl through Youtube videos to back my theory up).

Where was I?

I seem to have lost my train of thought...

Risk of a frost here tonight. I was going to request that my brother climbs the loft ladder to fetch down the giant black tower fan for me today but it seemed a little premature to do so.

Plus he had his best business suit on.

You watch. It'll be 80 degrees by Sunday night now...

Oh. One other piece of news caught my eye. Your Mr DON O'TRUMP has gone and splashed the cash in Scotland again this week. He purchased Turnberry - with an Open Championship links golf course, plus 2 spare courses, the golf academy, a 5 star hotel, lodge and cottages accommodation, all for a cool £35.7 million ($60.2m). Plus he plans to spend as much again on improvements.

The Turnberry Trump Links? It'll take more than a chocolate on the pillow to make that sound classy.

What is strange is that back in February this year Mr Trump said he'd not invest another penny in Scotland until the Scottish government shelved its plans for a wind farm project, which he claims will ruin the view from his controversial Trump International Golf Links (Aberdeenshire) development.

What Mr Trump may have missed is that Marine Scotland has already identified a 116 square mile area under 4 miles from the Turnberry shoreline for possible offshore wind development.

Scotland and its governing powers are very keen on wind power generation.

You'll have to get a proper fitting harness for Dutchie, or you'll be doing this at every stop! :(

Also needed: a tire bat. You can tell if a tire is flat by the sound of the thump the bat makes on the tire. Quicker than a tire pressure gauge, IMO, if you want to do a quick walk-around before taking off. They can be found at any truck stop.

DutchieDutchieDutchie...I wonder if she will get used to moving around, maybe even like it. I see people driving RV's all the time with cats or dogs perched on the dashboard.

We had a bit of heat out here the past two days; 85.3 on Wednesday and 79.4 yesterday. It's not often I can walk on the beach at 8pm in short sleeves; even on warm days the onshore wind usually kicks in after 2pm to really cool things down, or even bring in fog. Not this time....both days were warm and balmy long into the night. But right now it is 54 and cloudy with rain on the way, and back to our usual much cooler PNW spring.

Bad case of mosquitoes!

Sad event yesterday; sold my 1995 Toyota Corolla. I'm glad she's still of use to someone but she spent many years in my service. So now I am looking at just one car in the driveway...a 2008 Scion xB....love to drive it but it has a lot of unknowns, as someone else's car that I now own. I hope this baby is nearly as reliable as Goldie has been.

Glad to hear Dutchie is having fun without being a big issue of safety.

Stay safe with the nasty weather. We hit the 6 inch mark here. Nasty, but nothing like the mess on the FL/AL border though. I admit, I'm getting a bit tired of the endless wet, but I guess it's better than the CA drought situation.

Life is slowing down a tad ... finally. Summer should be relatively quiet. Yea.